College-Attendance Racial Gap Narrowed in 1990s, Study Says

The number of minority students seeking two- and four-year college
degrees rose during the 1990s, but blacks and Hispanics continue to lag
behind white students in finishing high school and enrolling in higher
education, a report issued last week says.

The study by the American Council on Education shows that despite
their gains in making it to college campuses, those minority
students—particularly men— still have much catching up to
do when it comes to graduating from those institutions.

"We're very encouraged by some of the new findings, but we still
think there are some gaps in access that need to be addressed," said
Michael A. Baer, a senior vice president for the council, a Washington
research and advocacy organization representing 1,800 colleges and
universities.

Titled "Minorities in Higher Education, 2001-2002," the annual
study, released Sept. 23, used data from the National Center for
Education Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, among other sources.

From 1990 to 1999, the number of Hispanics enrolled in higher
education rose 68 percent, and the population of African- American
students attending college increased by 31.6 percent, the council
found.

Overall, enrollment of all students rose by 7 percent during those
years, from 13.8 million to 14.7 million students nationwide. White
student enrollment fell by 4.3 percent during that decade, though that
population still made up 70 percent of total college enrollment.

Blacks and Hispanics also made strides in finishing high school, the
study found. Over the past 20 years, blacks between the ages of 18 and
24 boosted their high school completion rates by 6 percent, to 77
percent—though all of that progress was made before 1990, the
council found. The rate for Hispanics rose 4 percent, to 59.6
percent.

But a higher number of white students, 82.4 percent, finished high
school during that time. And just 39.4 percent of blacks and 36.5
percent of Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 24 participated in
college in 2000, compared with more than 43 percent of whites.

"That gap has existed for years," said John H. Jackson, the national
director of education for the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People. "Unless you implement new strategies to help those
students, you can't expect that gap to close."

Minorities also lagged behind whites students in other areas. In a
study of the colleges with the largest athletic programs, 59 percent of
whites graduated over a six-year period ending in 2000, compared to
only 46 percent of Hispanics and 38 percent of African-Americans. And
the study showed a wider gap between graduation rates for black women
and men—42 percent to 31 percent— than other races.

School districts could do more to help their minority students' odds
of going to college by making them aware that it was a realistic goal,
said Judy Bowers, the guidance coordinator for the Tucson Unified
School District in Arizona, and a member of the American School
Counselor Association.

College Visits

The Tucson district, which has a population of 61,000 students and
is 45 percent Hispanic, has increased opportunities for students at
different grade levels to visit two- and four- year campuses. College
enrollment has risen over time as a result, Ms. Bowers said.

"It's amazing how many high school students have never seen a
college campus," said Ms. Bowers.

The ACE also found that among high school graduates, women continue
to participate in college at a higher rate than their male
counterparts, by a rate of 43.9 percent to 33.8 percent among blacks;
38.6 percent to 34.2 percent among Hispanics, and 45.4 percent to 40.9
percent among whites.

Vol. 22, Issue 5, Page 11

Published in Print: October 2, 2002, as College-Attendance Racial Gap Narrowed in 1990s, Study Says

Read
"Campus Resegregation and Its Alternatives," the first chapter of
Chilling Admissions: The Affirmative Action Crisis and the Search
for Alternatives, a 2001 book published by the Civil Rights
Project at Harvard University. Gary Orfield, professor of education
and social policy at Harvard, addresses colleges' difficulties in
"trying to figure out how to maintain diversity without any explicit
consideration of race in admissions."

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